The Yankees are going to the playoffs without their captain.
Aaron Boone confirmed Tuesday that Aaron Judge has a moderate grade right calf strain and will not be available for the Wild Card Series.
“We’re planning on him not being a part of that,” Boone said.
The timeline does not work
Judge went on the 10-day injured list Saturday. He received a platelet-poor plasma injection in the calf on Monday’s off-day and will be shut down from all activity for several days after that.
Count the calendar. A shutdown period that runs into late September leaves no runway for baseball activity, let alone game speed, before a best-of-three series in early October. Boone is not being pessimistic. He is being accurate.
New York is locked into the short series
The Yankees have clinched a postseason berth, but Tampa Bay entered Tuesday with a magic number of two to take the AL East and the No. 1 seed. Once that falls, New York is playing a three-game Wild Card round instead of getting a bye.
The likely opponent is Boston. A three-game series against a division rival, without the best hitter in the sport, is the worst possible draw.
Ben Rice has been the season
New York has survived long stretches without Judge this year because Ben Rice turned into a monster. Rice sits third in the American League with 39 home runs, third with 100 runs, fourth with 95 RBI and fourth with an .888 OPS.
That is an MVP-caliber supporting season from a player who was not supposed to be carrying anything. The Yankees would be watching October on television without it.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. was set to be activated before Game 2 of Tuesday’s doubleheader, which helps.
The pitching might save them
Here is the reason not to write New York off. Carlos Rodon threw eight scoreless innings Tuesday and Cody Bellinger hit a two-run homer in a 2-0 win that delayed Tampa Bay’s clinch at Yankee Stadium.
Short series are pitching series. A rotation that can hand a manager eight scoreless innings in a must-win game in late September is built for exactly this format.
Boston, meanwhile, is planning to use Garrett Crochet out of the bullpen after a shoulder injury cost him most of the year. The Red Sox have depth and momentum.
This is a coin flip now
With a healthy Judge, the Yankees win that series more often than not. Without him, New York is a good pitching staff and Ben Rice against a Boston team that has been the best story in baseball since May.
If the Yankees survive three games, Judge could theoretically be back for the Division Series. That is the entire plan: hold on for a week and hope the calf cooperates.
Nobody in the Bronx is calling that a plan. It is simply the only option left on the table.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.